Revive Tanque Verde

Watershed Management Group and partners are leading a community campaign to restore habitat and surface flow to Tanque Verde Creek on Tucson's east side.

Our vision for Tanque Verde

Revive Tanque Verde is a companion to our Restore Sabino Creek campaign and part of WMG’s larger 50 Year Program to restore our desert rivers. Like Sabino Creek, Tanque Verde is supported by a shallow groundwater area, where groundwater levels can recover rapidly with reduced pumping from nearby wells and recharge with local infiltration. We are uniting with hundreds of community groups, agencies, businesses, and policy makers to protect and enhance the Colorado River and its many tributary creeks and rivers—like Sabino and Tanque Verde Creeks.

What is happening in Tanque Verde?

Like many of the creeks and springs in the Tucson region, Tanque Verde Creek and its surrounding riparian areas have been significantly depleted by pumping of groundwater, decades of poor water management, and drought. The result is loss of surface flow in the creek, the disappearance of springs, and the die-off of important riparian plants that support wildlife and provide green space for our urban population. Residents and visitors to Tucson now see dry creeks and rivers as the norm. This project is one stage in a larger program to reconnect people with our heritage of flowing desert rivers.

Our campaign

Our work to restore Tanque Verde is part of a larger active campaign to bring back flow to the tributaries of the Rillito River. To learn more about the campaign in action, visit our Restore Sabino Creek page.